X-Men Wins Easily, But Lizzie has Better Profit Margin

The first weekend of summer started a little weaker than last year, but it is still very strong. Of course, it wasn’t long ago when summer didn’t start till Memorial Day.

X-Men 2 easily won with $85.6 million, on the high end of the estimates. Better reviews, and a better internal multiplier than the first movie, suggest X-Men 2 should have better legs. However, the sequel will have stronger competition when The Matrix Reloaded opens in just 10 days. Even with this increased competition, $250 million should be an easily obtainable goal.

Opening in second place was The Lizzie McGuire Movie at $17.3 million, $2 million more than it cost to make. It will still take quite a bit more at the box office till the studios share pays for production and advertising, but it’s well on its way to profitability. The opening for Lizzie McGuire is better than fellow Tween movies Agent Cody Banks, What a Girl Wants and Holes. Factoring in the lower production budget and advertising budgets than any of those, Buena Vista should be very happy. Poor reviews could mean weak legs, but it will take a week or two to determine that.

In third was Identity with $9.4 million. While a drop of 41.9% would normally be considered quite bad, the genre mixed with the extreme competition makes this a better than expected result. Fourth place went to Anger Management which dropped 44% to $8.4 million. Holes came in fifth with just shy of $7 million and now has a total of over $45 million in just three weeks.

On an interesting note, Bend It Like Beckham made it’s first appearance in the top ten in its eighth week of release. The British film made $1.5 million in just 484 theatres to bring its total past the $10 million mark. Not bad for a movie that cost about half that to make.

Note: CinemaScores went to a subscription service, so I an no longer be able to use it in my analysis. Sorry for the inconvenience and I am looking for a replacement.